The Settling
by WeightyKatie
Summary: This is a series of fluffy moments between Derek and Chloe that have been floating around in my head. I'll upload chapters of scenarios I think of. Mostly set post The Reckoning, pre The Rising. I have been shipping this couple for 11 years so have a lot of gooey moments to get off my chest. Rated M just in case I go that way.
1. Steam

A warm hand reached out and settled in the curve of my waist as I lifted a soapy dish from the sink. I jumped, not quite as much as I used to, and the dish slipped from my hands back into the steaming water. I sighed, leaning back into him, his other hand encircling me as he gently nuzzled the top of my head.

"Hey," I said.

"Hmm. Need a hand?" His lips found their way to my cheek, burning a path to my jaw, brushing the base of my neck, teasing where the skin meets my shoulder.

"Convenient timing, seeing as I'm nearly finished." I wanted to turn to him and see the sheepish look on his face but I was enjoying the cuddle a little too much.

"Maybe I really should play the drums." I felt his laugh rather than heard it, the deep growling rumble reverberating through my chest.

"Help me or get lost. Otherwise, you'll be chasing your tail later while I'm at home in the warm." He nipped my ear at that, releasing me back to my chore and picking up a towel to dry the clean dishes. I smiled and glanced over at him, catching his gaze, a gentle smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

Derek isn't one for smiling which concerned me at first but I soon realised it just made his rare grins all the more wonderful. They always catch me off guard, reducing me back into the same nervous stuttering wreck that I was when we first met. I like to think I have grown - figuratively, I am still barely past five feet - and gained some composure but Derek is always able to unravel me.

I placed the last plate on the dryer and peeked at him, my gaze caught by his strong hands as he delicately worked the towel over a glass. His fingers were unexpectedly long and graceful - a contrast to his enormous hulking frame. I followed the strong lines of his arms to his broad shoulders and felt urged to lean into him and feel the breadth of his body around me. I resisted knowing that Aunt Lauren would not be impressed with finding us snuggled up during chores for the third time.

Green eyes bored into mine. I had gotten lost in my thoughts and been busted ogling my boyfriend. My cheeks burned.

"It's rude to stare, y'know," Derek said. His words were teasing but there was a serious predatory look in his eye that made my embarrassing flush burn hotter. We both stood still, locked together by our intense gaze, a thick tension holding us fast. I broke first.

"I-I-"

"Are you guys done yet? Dad says you need to get on with his housebreaking before it gets dark." Simon swung into the room, a grin lighting up his face as he noticed the tension between Derek and I. "Looks like you really need to let off some steam, bro. Better get going"

Derek swatted at him with the damp towel, skimming the top of Simon's blond head as he ran from the room. Somehow after my failed kiss with Simon, we had all returned to normal with unexpected ease. There was no awkwardness or tension and I honestly had to attribute that all to Simon - I don't think I could have been the bigger person and let my brother have the girl I liked. He was one of those incredibly approachable friendly people that sets everyone else at ease. If he wants something to blow over it just does. I had to admire him for that.

A sharp sting shot across my thigh. I looked up to see Derek, towel in hand, fighting back a smile. "C'mon, let's blow off some steam."

* * *

Branches snatched at my face and clothes, silhouettes of trees flying past as I ran through the thicket. I was making too much noise as I fled but I needed to make as much ground as I could. I had twenty seconds left.

I started to slow, my heart still thundering in my chest as I looked for the perfect tree. Doubling back on myself for what felt like an eternity, I saw the perfect low hanging branch. I clambered up as fast as I could. I climbed to the opposite side of the tree, crouching low, positioning myself as close to the neighbouring pine as I could.

A howl pierced through the forest, startling me. My time was up. I jumped forward, reaching out to grasp the adjacent tree limb. In my panic I overshot and my wrist impacted with the wood. My flailing hands somehow managed to grip the branch and I pulled myself up. Moving as slowly and silently as I could through the treetops I made my way back to the clearing.

After a long painstaking journey, it came into view - Derek's neatly folded clothes with my backpack rested on our blanket in the centre of the small glade. I grinned.

Hide and seek became part of our ritual when Derek realised that, other than running, there wasn't a whole lot to do as a wolf. He had been having dreams of hunting deer and rabbits but didn't want to act on that instinct, at least not for now. He still felt the need to hunt and chase so I volunteered as the prey. At first, he kept finding me super easily but I started putting the work in to hide my trail. He seemed to appreciate the challenge.

With a grin still fixed to my face as this was the longest I have ever managed to remain a fugitive, I dangled from the lowest branch and dropped to the ground. I stood still, straining my ears for any sign of the big bad wolf, my gaze panning around the clearing. I took one tentative step. Then another. Then another. Unable to contain myself I sprinted to the blanket and threw myself onto it, a quiet laugh bubbling up past my lips. I stretched out and waited, basking in my success.

After a few minutes, the adrenaline faded and I felt my eyelids droop. I sat upright, not wanting to fall asleep before he found me. I fiddled with a loose thread on the blanket.

He sure is taking a long time.

I stood up and paced around the glade, clearing my throat and generally making more noise than was natural, impatient to rub my win in his face.

My breath left my body in a sharp wheeze as a heavy weight hit me square in the back and I landed painfully on my hands and knees. I rolled over gasping and came face to face with my assailant. Two green eyes clouded with concern watched me. I met them with a hard glare and angrily shoved the enormous black wolf. "Bully," I wheezed.

My pitiful shove did not have the impact I wanted. Derek stayed put, leaning forward to nuzzle my neck, chuffing. An apology. "You couldn't handle being tricked so you had to throw your weight around. Bully." A grunt. I stood up, walking over to my bag, but he darted into my path. A low growl. I sidestepped. Growl. I met his gaze and glowered back at him, his enormous frame in wolf form making him close to my eye level.

In a beat, his body language changed. His jaw relaxed and his tongue lolled out in a goofy wolfy grin. I couldn't help but laugh and gave him another shove. He pressed into my side and I gripped a fistful of his fur, marvelling at the soft texture. I dropped to my knees and pressed my face into his neck winding my arms around him. My whole body relaxed and I felt him relax with me. Derek snuffled my shoulder and the back of my neck, chuffing again. "I guess I forgive you," I said.

With a final chuff, he darted off, running in circles faster and faster until he was just a blurry black line surrounding me. He skidded to a stop and landed in a mess of tangled limbs and I was unable to contain my laughter. He glared at me, offended.

"Don't be like that. We're even now." Derek stalked over to me stopping with a foot of distance between us, his head turned to the side. "You don't get to throw a tantrum after that smackdown you gave me just now." He turned towards me, somehow a comically sheepish look on his canine face. He walked past me, giving my hip a gentle nudge with his head, and stood in the middle of the blanket.

"Ready?" I said. He dipped his head, gaze down, concentrating.

I sat down next to him, facing away, and leaned back with my weight on my hands. I shifted until I felt his paw and rested my hand on top. With a hard spasm that shook his entire body, the change began.

* * *

Once again, Derek's warm hand settled into the curve of my waist. We were laying on the blanket, still with my back to him for his privacy. We are pretty open with each other but he doesn't exactly enjoy me seeing him like that, mid change. As soon as he had finished he pulled his boxers on to regain some dignity and tugged me down to lay with him.

We lay there quietly together while his breathing slowed and the sweat dried from his skin, his hand on my side. He can't seem to be near me without even the slightest physical contact. Not that I'm complaining. His hand tightened and tugged me closer, I peered over my shoulder and saw him shiver, my eyes drawn to the hard lines of his chest -

Calm down, Chloe. Give the poor guy a chance to recover.

I sat up and he grumbled. I smiled to myself as I pulled the second blanket from my backpack and laid it over him. His eyes opened as I leant over and he gave me a sleepy smile. He reached for me again, snaking his arm around me and pulling me tight against his body, nuzzling into me, inhaling deeply. He mumbled into my hair, "I'm sorry, I knocked you down. Only meant to scare you."

"I guess I'll live." He grumbled incoherently in response. I laughed.

With a groan, he rolled me over, his face above mine. "I am sorry." His eyes pleaded with me.

"I know," I reached up and cupped his cheek."I forgive you."

Derek lay back on his side, pulling me with him. My hand slid from his face to his chest, resting there. He brought his face close to mine, his warm breath on my lips, his hand in my hair. Slowly, so slowly, he brought his mouth to mine. We kissed so softly I almost couldn't feel it, just a gentle brush of lips and sighs making my body erupt into shivers. His grip on me tightened and our lips met again more firmly, a distinctive soft smack of a kiss breaking the silence of the forest. My hands slid to his shoulders, gripping onto him as if I might float away with giddiness, our lips meeting seamlessly in gentle kiss after gentle kiss.

My lips parted with a soft sigh as I tentatively brushed his bottom lip with my tongue, searching for his. He met me halfway in earnest, groaning and sliding his hands down to my hips in a firm grip. I whimpered involuntarily. His mouth moved against mine firmly, unyielding, drowning me in his kiss. Heat erupted between us and I lost all sense of where we ended and began. Our hands grasped and caressed each other, gripping and releasing and gripping again, needing more and more of each other.

I was on my back, held firmly to the ground by the weight of him pressed flush against my body, our legs tangled, my hands desperately exploring the bare skin of his muscular back. His grip on my hip lessened slightly as it slid up towards my waist, slipping just under the hem of my shirt. His thumb gently brushed the skin of my stomach and I gasped. He went still, hesitating, and I caught our kiss again to tell him it's okay. He relaxed into me and caressed my side tentatively, making me shiver. This spurred him on and his hand slipped higher brushing my ribs and fully exploring the skin there.

My body was on fire. His hand leaving a burning trail as he retreated down to my hip. Our kisses softened, the urgency leaving. His arms wound around me in a gentle cradle as our lips met in tender pecks. Derek rolled onto his back, pulling me with him. With a final kiss our lips separated, we held our faces close for a while. I took a steadying breath and shifted against him, settling into the curve of his neck as he held me.

We lay in silence for a while as our racing hearts slowed. He toyed with the ends of my hair while I fought to keep my eyes open. Derek makes me feel so safe and warm that I struggle to stay awake when we are together like this. It's incredibly frustrating.

"We're gonna have to get back. It's getting dark," he said.

I reluctantly pushed myself up from where we lay but he flipped me over onto my back and kissed me fiercely. And then he was gone.

I stood up, slightly disoriented, to see him pulling on clothes. I grumbled and folded the blanket, stuffing it into my backpack. I swung the pack over my arm and it left my hand. I glanced behind me to see Derek shouldering it. He rested a heavy arm around my shoulders, kissed the top of my head, and we walked home.


	2. Surprise

**This story is set after Kelley Armstrong's short story, Atoning, which is set a couple of years after The Rising. **

**I really recommend you read her Darkest Powers short stories if you haven't already! **

* * *

**Surprise**

The sun glared through the window of my jeep, casting long shadows across the highway, and blurring my vision. I reached into the pocket of my door, rifling through the crap I had accumulated, and fished out my sunglasses. I had been driving for almost 3 hours now on my way to surprise Derek at the university and the sun had begun to set. I hate driving in the dark, I avoid it as much as possible, so I let my foot press on the gas a little more, eager to get to Toronto.

I decided on a whim this morning to pack a bag and head over to see Derek. He had been a student for almost four weeks now and hadn't managed to make it back every weekend as he said he would. I understood, the workload had been much more demanding than he anticipated, and he couldn't spare the time like he thought he could. So far he had made it back once. He told me on our daily phone call yesterday how stressed he was getting, being away from me - and Simon and Kit, of course. He didn't say in so many words but I know the wolf in him wants his pack nearby. It's killing him to be so far away.

And it's not just Derek that's struggling. I hate to be the kind of girl who is super dependent on her boyfriend, but man, I miss him. I constantly see or hear things and want to tell him about them right away. I miss when we would study together, sitting silently, working independently, just comforted by each other's presence. I even miss hearing him talk about physics papers I don't understand. One phone call per day just doesn't seem to cut it.

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. 16:59. I smiled to myself and tried to ignore my cell in its stand, tried not to bounce in my seat, tried to focus on the road.

Bark, bark.

I had decided to keep the ringtone Tori had set for Derek, figuring he would never hear it, knowing exactly how annoyed he would be by it. I answered the phone.

"Hey, you."

"Hey, how'd you do on that paper? The one on the book about the guy in the painting?" His breath was quick, walking back to his dorm as fast as he could.

"Not so good. I totally let that one fall through the cracks. I managed to swindle an extension though."

A grunt, "Good. Although, I thought you'd be more focussed without me there distracting you all the time." I could hear his smile.

"Nope. You're somehow even more of a hindrance when you're hundreds of miles away."

He laughed, "I find that hard to -" He paused. "Are you in a car?" Shit.

"Y-yeah. Managed to get myself a day pass. I'm meeting Maya and Daniel in town for dinner and a movie. I'm gonna hit the bookstore while I wait for them."

He was quiet for a while. "Have fun. Let me know when you're there and then home safe."

He knows I'm lying. Nothing gets past him. The troubles of having a genius for a boyfriend. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Probably just gonna go home and study. Maybe go for a run tonight, but I'm kinda tired. Listen, I gotta go. Talk later, maybe."

"Okay. Talk later." Click.

I felt bad knowing he was hurt by my lying, but it didn't last long as I passed a big blue sign. 'Welcome to Toronto. Ontario's Capital.'

* * *

I pulled into the parking lot a few blocks from his building. The last of the sunshine was gone and my breath hung in a fog in the air. I shouldered my backpack and walked to the dorms, hoping I remembered his room number right. I got to the building entrance, the lower floor was all glass, with an intercom system. I spammed all of the buttons until someone buzzed me in.

My breath was quick as I made my way to the elevator. A wave of nerves came over me when the doors closed. What if he wasn't there? What if he was really mad? I took a slow, deep breath, focusing on my diaphragm like my speech therapist taught me all those years ago. After everything we went through with the Edison Group and the cabals, I started getting these little bouts of anxiety. They'd improved a lot but sometimes they caught me off guard. Slow down. He loves you, dummy.

The elevator doors opened to a carpeted hallway, fluorescent lights illuminating the beige walls and the metallic numbers screwed onto the doors. I checked the numbers and turned left, looking for room 713. I reached another turn in the hallway, walked to the second to last door and raised my fist. One last breath. I knocked.

I stood there for an eternity. My heart pounded in my ears and fluttered in my chest, I couldn't breathe. I raised my fist once more and knocked again.

At the second rap, the door swung open.

"What? Who the hell -" Derek's gaze dropped to my face, his eyebrows pushed together and his mouth hung open. I smiled.

"Surprise." He stood still for another moment, then his face broke out into a blazing grin.

"You little shit." His enormous arms wrapped around me in a crushing hug as he swung me inside and kicked the door shut behind him. He just stood there, staring at me, his hands gripping my arms, at a loss for words.

"Surprise," I said again, stupidly.

Derek cupped my face in his hands and kissed me softly, his fingers sliding into my hair. He drew back and kissed my nose. "Your face is freezing." I lifted onto my toes and pressed my face into his neck, making him jump. He growled and kissed me again, lifting me, before reluctantly returning me to the ground. He took my bag and my coat, hanging them on one of the hooks by the door.

I looked around the conspicuously tidy room. Unlike most eighteen-year-old guys, Derek was very particular about how things were kept, never going to sleep without everything clean and organised. To the right of the entrance was another door, half-open, revealing a small bathroom. The rest of the room opened up into a comfortable living space with a sofa, tv, desk, and computer. A double bed with unwrinkled sheets stood in the corner to the right of the window.

My gaze returned to Derek who was staring back at me with his crooked grin.

"Well," I said, "I've had a long drive. I'll probably have a little lie down while you finish studying. You said you had a lot to do, right?" I walked backwards and his eyes followed me, narrowed, his lips forming a predatory smile.

"So don't mind me, I'll keep out of your way," he started matching my steps as I backed towards the bed. "So just act like I'm not even he-"

Derek tackled me, throwing me backwards, somehow landing gently on top of me as we bounced from the impact, the springs of the mattress cushioning our landing. His lips met mine in a crushing kiss, our breathing ragged, our hands gripping desperately at each other. His hands found mine and he entwined our fingers above my head, holding me still. He pulled back from the kiss, his lips only millimetres from mine.

"I missed you so much." He breathed.

"Prove it."

* * *

We lay together, tangled in the sheets, panting as we caught our breath. The cool air of the room soothed my overheated skin. I lay on my back with Derek's arm as a cushion beneath my neck, my left arm draped up onto his chest, both of us too hot to cuddle but unwilling to separate contact. I stretched, relishing in the languor, a sigh escaping my lips. Derek chuckled softly, and I stole a glance, his eyes closed, a half-smile playing on his lips. "Are you purring?"

"Almost," I said.

He shifted me closer, rolling me onto my side so that I was snuggled against him, and kissed the top of my head, inhaling deeply before sighing. "Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"Coming all this way. I know I said I would be back home every weekend but-"

"Uh-uh. We're not having this conversation again. I'm not mad. Get over it." I looked at him and softened my words with a kiss. "But if your guilty conscience is urging you to buy me some dinner, I'm not gonna refuse."

He smiled. "I could eat."

I snorted. "Obviously." He poked me in the ribs. I poked him back, then tickled him. He gasped and grabbed my arms, flipping me onto my back. "This is not a game you're gonna win," he said.

Finding out that Derek is extremely ticklish has been the highlight of my life. The only issue is his fast reflexes and super-strength - I never get more than a few seconds of joy before being put in my place. But his gasps and giggles are totally worth it.

"A girl can dream."

He gripped both my wrists in one hand, kneeling over me with his legs pinning my thighs, and trailed the fingers of his other hand along my side. I shivered. He brushed along my ribs and approached my armpit. I started to struggle.

"No, no, no, no, no…" I giggled involuntarily. I arched my back, pulling against him to bring my arms down but his grip tightened and his fingers continued to migrate upwards. "No, don't, don't, please don't." I writhed and fought but he held me fast. He hovered his fingers just above the skin of my underarm, waiting there, as the mere threat of his touch sending me into a giggling, writhing mess.

"Say that I win." His fought back a smile, trying to look serious.

"I'll never surrender." He grinned.

"I hoped you'd say that." He brought his fingers down and tickled me mercilessly. I bucked and shrieked and begged but he kept going, tormenting me until I couldn't catch my breath.

"You win!" I gasped. His hands released me immediately and he leaned back, kneeling above me.

"That's better." He reached back towards me, and cupped my breast, his fingers gently brushing my nipple. I swatted his hand and pushed him off of me.

"Nope. You've lost all privileges until further notice."

"Until your next meal, you mean." His eyes danced with mischief, and I smiled in spite of myself.

"Shut up." I pulled on my jeans and tossed his onto the bed. "Come on, let's hunt."

We dressed quickly and I rushed towards the door. Derek caught my arm, spinning me to face him. I gave my best growl. He laughed.

"I love you so much."


End file.
